Question

Write one food chain commonly found in the following ecosystems:

(i) Pond

(ii) Grassland

(iii) Forest

Answer 1

(i)

Pond ecosystem:

1. A pond ecosystem is a natural ecosystem where aquatic organisms like fishes, protozoans, and algae live together.

Food chain in pond ecosystem:

1. The algae are photosynthetic organisms and are producers. So, the algae are present at the base of the food chain.
2. Small organisms like protozoans survive by consuming algae. Protozoans act as primary consumers.
3. Protozoans are in turn consumed by small insects. So, the small insect is the second consumer.
4. The small fishes eat small insects and the large fish consumes many small fishes.

Algae→Protozoa→Small insect→Small fish→Large fish

(ii)

Grassland ecosystem:

1. The grassland ecosystem is a terrestrial ecosystem.
2. The grassland ecosystem is a natural ecosystem where organisms like a jackal, foxes, tigers, grass, or insects live together.

Food chain found in grassland ecosystem:

1. The grass is photosynthetic and acts as producers. So, the grass is present at the base of the food chain.
2. Organisms like deer survive by consuming grass as they are herbivores. So, these are primary consumers.
3. Primary consumers are in turn consumed by the carnivores. For example- Frog.
4. The carnivores are secondary consumers.

Example of food chain found in grassland ecosystem:

Grass→Insect→Frog→Snake

(iii) Forest ecosystem:

1. The forest ecosystem is a terrestrial ecosystem.
2. The forest ecosystem is a natural ecosystem where organisms like elephants, lions, tigers, trees, grass, rabbits, etc live together.

Food chain in forest ecosystem:

1. The grass is photosynthetic and acts as a producer. So, the grass is present at the base of the food chain.
2. Organisms like rabbits survive by consuming grass as they are usually herbivores. So, the organisms consuming grass are primary consumers.
3. Herbivores or primary consumers are in turn consumed by the carnivores. The carnivores are secondary consumers.
4. The carnivores like fox consume the rabbits or other small herbivores.
5. The tertiary consumers consume secondary consumers. For example- the tiger. The tiger is present at the highest trophic level in this food chain and consumes secondary consumers like fox or jackal.

Example of the food chain in forest ecosystem:

Grass→Rabbit→Fox→Tiger